


And They Don't Lose Any Sleep At Night

by Malkontent



Category: Goodbye Earl (Song)
Genre: Abuse, Ambiguous Relationships, Dreams, F/F, Female Friendship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Injury Recovery, Memories, Murder, Past Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Post-Canon, Protectiveness, body disposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 16:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1785661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malkontent/pseuds/Malkontent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A glimpse at life after Earl, and memories of times gone by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And They Don't Lose Any Sleep At Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Joanne_c](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanne_c/gifts).



> Dear Recipient, thank you so much for giving me a chance to write this for you :) I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Measured_Words for betaing!

About ten miles south of Dothan, Alabama, on a dusty stretch of Highway 109, not long before it hits the Florida border and turns into Highway 77 on its way down to Panama City, there was a storm moving in. The late afternoon sun still shone down fiercely on the corrugated roof of the converted shack, but the light was stretched and empty, with an amber tint that it only ever got on those really hot southern days right before the rains came thundering by.

“She’s gonna pour tonight…” Wanda said, staring off out to the horizon, her elbows resting on the rough wooden counter that held their clunky old cash register. She pulled the brim of her straw hat down to shield her eyes against the sun and found that if she squinted right she could just make out the bands of rain in the distance. The gentle breeze that was bringing the clouds in from the east made her yellow sundress flutter behind the counter

“Good thing, too,” Mary Anne said as she set down a box of empty jars on the work table nearby, “Been a dry season. Crops can use it.” She pulled a red handkerchief out of her back pocket and wiped the sweat from her face, running a hand through her loose blonde hair.

Wanda made no answer. Her mind was elsewhere.

“Wanda?”

 

\---------------------

 

“Wanda! C’mon, girl, get your head in the game!”

Wanda shakes her head and rubs her face as the beat up Kia pulls to a halt on the side of the rough dirt track. In the headlights’ gleam she can make out black waters ahead of them through the trees. On the windshield, Wanda can see the first sprinklings of a slow drizzle from the cloudy night sky.

“Where are we?”

“Seminole Lake. In that wildlife area my cousin Donnie works near.”

“We’re in Georgia?”

“Hell yeah. Didn’t you see the sign? We been drivin’ more’n an hour.”

“I guess I kinda… zoned out.”

“God’s honest truth. You been a zombie since we left the house.”

Wanda shrugs and turns to her friend. Even in the dim light of the car’s front seat the bruises around her eyes and neck are still vivid; a swollen purple and yellow, like the gleam of oil on water.

“I guess… I just can’t believe we did it.”

“We ain’t done yet. C’mon.”

They get out and Wanda flinches at the first few raindrops that hit her skin.

“You gotta be kidding me. I wore my good shoes.”

Mary Anne looks at her, stunned.

“Wanda, we’re throwing your husband in the lake, not going to church. Why the hell did you wear good shoes?”

“Well I figured it was worth dressing up nice. It’s not every day I get my life back.”

Soon both women are standing in back of the car looking down into the open trunk.

“C’mon, let’s get him outta there. We ain’t got all night.”

“Yeah…”

Wanda reaches in and takes hold of the wrapped bundle.

“Oh Jesus!” she yelps and hops backwards.

“What?! What’s wrong?!” Mary Anne gasps, looking around.

“He’s all… floppy…”

Mary Anne sighs.

“Of course he is. He’s dead, Wanda.”

“Well, ain’t they supposed to be all stiff? Like a mannequin?”

“Rigor Mortis don’t set in for three to four hours, Sugar. Till then they’re like a rag doll. It ain’t been but two since he kicked the bucket.”

Wanda raises an eyebrow at her friend.

“You learn that at UGA vet school?”

“Nah, CSI: Miami. Now grab his shoulders.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Wanda sighs as she reaches down to get a good grip on one end of the parcel and lifts, “Jesus he weighs a ton!”

Mary Anne grabs the other end and together they heave the package out of the trunk, staggering down the incline towards the lake. As they stumble along the drizzle slowly begins to turn into a steady rain that soaks their clothes.

“Oof! Man, you ain’t kidding!” Mary Anne groans, “He must be damn near three hundred pounds! You married the damn Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man...”

“Jesus Christ, Mary Anne! What in the Hell is wrong with you?! Why would you possibly say something like that now of all times?!”

“Jeez, sorry…”

“It’s not like I had much choice in that stupid town.”

“Why do you think I left?”

“Ran away, you mean.”

“Ran away?!”

Mary Anne stops and throws her end of the parcel to the ground. It thuds mutely against the wet grass and mud.

“I didn’t run nowhere! I went looking for a life better’n the one waiting for me in that shithole!”

Wanda angrily tosses her end of the package to the ground as well.

“Call it whatever you want, Mary Anne, you left!”

“Damnit Wanda, what the hell did I have to stay for?!”

Wanda opens her mouth, but nothing comes out, her anger catching in her throat. Suddenly her legs feel weak and she collapses into a sitting position on the wet grass, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

“You… you had me.” Wanda says, trying not to cry, “I was… Jesus, I was so alone after you left. I didn’t have anyone else. And Earl, he… well, he was here. And you weren’t.”

The anger retreats from Mary Anne’s face as well and she sits down next to Wanda, putting her arm lightly around her.

“Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry, Wanda. I didn’t… I wasn’t leaving you. I never meant that.”

“It’s okay…” Wanda mumbles, “I know that, I just… it’s been so...”

“Shhhh… it’s ok, Wanda. I know. I’m so sorry. I ain’t going nowhere from now on.”

Wanda looks up, the tears on her cheeks hidden by the rain.

“You promise?”

“Cross my heart. I’m done with school now. Ain’t much for me in Atlanta anyways.”

Wanda pulls her friend closer letting out a sigh of relief.

“You have no idea how good it is to hear that. It’s been… hard… since you left.”

“I know, sugar. I know.”

Mary Anne looks up and her gaze falls on the lumpy, tarp-wrapped object that lies in the mud, the steady rain pattering against the plastic tarp.

“Welp, I guess this sumbitch ain’t gonna throw himself in the lake.”

Wanda sighs and stands up, wiping the mud off her clothes.

“He never did know how to make himself useful.”

Mary Anne laughs and gets to her own feet, leaning down to pick up her end of the bundle again.

“C’mon, give me a hand here.”

 

\---------------------------------

 

“Wanda… can you give me a hand here?”

“Huh?”

Wanda spun around, startled from her reminiscence by Mary Anne’s voice behind her. Mary Anne was carrying two heavy boxes of jams, one on each shoulder, but she had no way to set them down.

“Oh! Sorry!” Wanda said, rushing over to take one of the boxes.

Mary Anne laughed as they both set down their boxes on the countertop.

“You and your daydreamin’. What were you thinking about over there?”

“Nothin’. Just rain.”

“Well, heads up, Sleeping Beauty. Looks like we got us a visitor.”

Wanda turned around to see a county sheriff's car pulling to a stop next to their stand. For a moment her breath caught in her throat, but as it pulled closer she saw the driver and relaxed.

“Hey there, Terri!” she said as she hurried back to the counter, trying to shake off the paranoia that had sprung up suddenly.

“Heya Wanda!” the police officer said as she opened the car door and stepped out, “You ladies doing ok out here?”

“Right as rain!” Wanda said with a grin, gesturing to the storm on the horizon.

“Woo, yeah, gonna be a helluva night. These summer storms are the worst. You know what they say: slow to come in, slow to leave. You ladies might wanna think about packing it in for the day.”

Wanda nodded, already grabbing Terri’s usual order, a jar of strawberry jam and two jars of jalapeno jelly, from the shelf behind her.

“Yeah, we’ll head out as soon as Mary Anne gets the rest of the truck unloaded.”

“Alright,” Terri said with a smile as she tossed a ten dollar bill on the counter and took the proffered jars, “Just be safe. I don’t know where I’d get my jam if anything happened to you two.”

Wanda laughed and waved goodbye as the officer got back into her cruiser and pulled out onto the highway.

“You think she suspects anything?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Who, Two-Shoes Terri?” Mary Anne responded with a snort, “If she thought we were killers you’d know. Remember in third grade when she told on Eric Fincher for passing notes in class when she was the one he was passing the note to? That woman doesn’t have a dishonest bone in her body. Even back then we knew she was either gonna be a police officer or a super hero.”

"Well, what about everyone else?"

"Honey, ain't no one even looking for him. Remember what his mama said when you told her he'd run off and the cops were lookin' for him?"

Wanda giggled.

"Sure do. She said if they found him they could keep him."

Mary Anne grinned.

"My point exactly, sugar. Ain't no one loosin' sleep over where he went off to."

“Yeah, you’re right.” Wanda smiled and reached up, pulling the chain that closed down the front flap of the stand. “C’mon, I’ll help you unload the rest of that stuff before we close up.”

 

\------------------------------

 

“Wanda! Wanda you get your ass back here right now!”

The deep growl of a voice echoes through the house as Wanda runs, her bare feet slapping against the tiled hallway floor of the apartment. There’s noise all around her, the howl of wind and rain on the dirty glass windows, the choked sobbing of her own breaths, the rumble of distant thunder, and above all the harsh yells and thudding footsteps from behind her.

He’s close now. So close.

She doesn’t look back. The hallway goes on for miles ahead of her, twisting and turning, wooden doors lining each wall like gargoyles, mocking her flight. She frantically tries to open one. Locked. Just like all the others.

“Don’t you run from me!”

She stumbles and falls, her feet unable to gain traction on the slick tile.

“Wanda! In here!”

It’s a different voice. Mary Anne’s voice. Wanda looks up to see an open door a few feet away. The footsteps are still coming, gaining on her.

With eyes clouded in tears Wanda lunges forward, pulling herself into the doorway and slamming the door shut behind her. Inside there is only darkness. No light. No rain or thunder. No footsteps.

“Shhhh… it’s okay, Wanda,” Mary Anne whispers, but Wanda can’t see her, can’t find her.

Suddenly there’s a crash behind her. Something large is slamming into the door. Something angry.

“Gaddamnit woman! Don’t make me come in there!”

Wanda screams as the door begins to splinter, and then there’s nothing but a blinding light piercing the dark.

 

\------------------------------------

 

“No!” Wanda muttered as she bolted upright in bed, sweat covering her body, making her nightgown cling to her.

She shivered and looked around. Her room was empty and quiet except for the steady drum of rain against the window. Suddenly the sky outside the window flashed and her room was illuminated in bright lights and shadows. A moment later a crash of thunder made her gasp and pull the covers closer to her, despite the summer heat.

When the echo of the thunder had passed she forced herself to start breathing again and pushed the covers back. Shaking, she pushed her legs off the side of the bed and got up.

Soon she found herself at the door to Mary Anne’s room.

 

\------------------------------------

 

Mary Anne's room is a lot like Mary Anne herself; a little bit boyish, a little bit girly, and practical to a fault. There are no toys scattered around, no books left half open or dirty clothes strewn around. Wanda always thinks how nice it must be to have your own room. She has to share the tiny one in her trailer with her brother.

Outside, the wind is blowing and rain is coming down in sheets, but inside the bright lights and giggling voices of young girls keep the storm at bay.

"Alright, so Ralph or Gene?" Wanda asks, giggling to herself.

Mary Anne rolls her eyes and leans back against her bedframe.

"Jesus, neither."

"Awww, c'mon, spoilsport, you gotta pick one."

"They're not my type."

"Alright then, who's your type."

Mary Anne shrugs.

"Not Ralph Culpepper or Gene Merriland, that's for damn sure."

"There's gotta be someone you think is cute."

"Course there is. That don't mean I wanna marry 'em."

Wanda sighs theatrically.

"You're no fun."

"You keep sayin' that and yet you still hang out with me all the time."

Wanda laughs.

"Course I do, dummy. You're my friend."

Mary Anne smiles.

The lights flicker and her smile fades.

“Aw, fuck…”

Suddenly the room is plunged into blackness and Wanda gasps in fear.

“Shit, the power’s out,” Mary Anne sighs.

Wanda panics, her breathing increasing as her eyes begin adjusting to the dark. A flash of lightning illuminates the room and Mary Anne can see her panic for just a moment.

“Hey, you okay?”

“I… I don’t like storms. I don’t…”

“Hey, shhh…” Wanda says, sliding over next to her and putting one arm around the frightened young girl, “It’s okay. Just relax. Ain’t nothin’ gonna happen to us. We’re together, right?”

“Yeah…”

“I ain’t gonna let nothin’ happen to you. Not ever.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

 

\------------------------------------

 

To her relief, Wanda saw that Mary Anne was still awake, her eyes staring up at her in the darkened room.

“I knew you’d be coming. It’s the rain, isn't it?”

Wanda nodded, hugging herself tightly.

Mary Anne smiled and shifted over on the bed. Wanda carefully climbed in next to her, pulling the covers up over herself.

“It’s okay…” Mary Anne whispered, her arm draping over her friend. She pressed her lips to Wanda’s forehead and kissed her gently. “I won’t let anything hurt you. Not ever again.”

Wanda curled herself against Mary Anne. A moment later there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, and Wanda felt Mary Anne’s arm pull tighter around her.

Outside the rain fell and the wind howled and the lightning crashed. Inside, huddled together, the two women braced each other against the storm that raged outside. Slowly, Wanda drifted off again into a dreamless sleep, safe in Mary Anne’s arms.

 

 


End file.
